I Dare You

Ch-4 The Project in the Becoming

"He's up in his room", said Mrs Finley, pointing towards the stairs.

"Oh, okay", Eliza said, she kept the big piece of cardboard that she had bought with her against the wall. "Is it okay if I keep this........"

Mrs Finley just waved her hand, indicating that it was fine. Eliza slightly nodded before making her way up the stairs clutching a few books in her hand, she had already decided what the project was gonna be, she was gonna be depicting the Lunar and Solar eclipse. It was not her first choice but she decided to go with something easier due to the partner situation. She didn't think much of Darien, she thought of him as a good for nothing scum bag, although she did realise he was smarter than she gave him credit for, she never acknowledged it.

She stood outside his door, her hand resting on the golden doorknob, she took in a deep breath, mentally preparing herself before twisting the knob.

The door creaked open to the sight of Darien, he was leaning on his desk staring out the window, shirtless. Slight slivers of afternoon sun glowing on his built abs, his hand on his forehead protecting his eyes from direct sunlight.

Eliza quickly closed the door shut, she was outside his room, with her back against the door. "There's a thing called locking the doors"

"There's a thing called knocking before entering", a voice from inside called.

That was actually correct, Eliza realised that it was her fault but didn't say anything, she was embarrassed and uncomfortable, she twirled her dark curly hair on around her finger to distract herself from the awkward silence,

"C'mon in", he called from inside.

She once again pushed the door open only to see Darien, still shirtless, standing there with his hands in his pockets. She just turned around this time, facing the door. "How do you still not have some clothes on?"

She heard his footsteps getting closer, the floors creaked as he slowly walked towards her. "Don't act as if you're not enjoying all this."

"Do. Not.", she said firmly.

"Okay okay, here you can see now."

Eliza was skeptical, she cautiously turned around to the sight of Darien buttoning up his red flannel shirt. He opened his arms as if presenting himself as he swiftly twirled in a circle. "Happy now? Fully clothed."

Eliza slightly rolled her eyes before walking in, she plopped her bundle of books on his desk, she chose a single book from the pile and opened it. "See, so I was thinking that we could....."

He took the corner of the book and flicked it shut. "Don't need to know, just tell me what needs to be done."

Eliza sighed, lugging those heavy books acroos the streets proved to have no purpose. "Yeah so, do you have any paints?"

He stood there with a blank expression looking very confused, he went over to his desk and started fumbling around in one of the drawers. Eliza slightly narrowed her eyes before making her way down the stairs to get the cardboard, she thought about why she left it downstairs when she knew she was gonna need it eventually.

By the time she came back upstairs, Darien was sitting on the floor going through the small cabinet below his desk, majority of the things that used to be in his drawer were now scattered on his bed. "I distinctly remember keeping them in here"

Eliza kept the carboard piece on his bed and looked at it for sometime, she was visualising what the finished project would look like. "We would also be needing brushes", she said out of the blue.

"One thing at a time, Elizabeth.", he said rather irritably.

Eliza narrowed her eyes once again, she walked over towards him and leaned on the desk with her elbows on the table, her fist tucked underneath her chin. "You do know that my actual name is not Elizabeth"

He stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. "Eliza is not short for Elizabeth?"

"Nope."

"Thats weird. Ah! Finally! Found them"

He was holding an almost new box of paints in his hand. Eliza slow clapped sarcastically before taking the paint box from his hands. "All these years you thought that my name was Elizabeth?"

"Yeah."

"Why? No one calls me that"

"I didn't care back then. I still don't care now.....Elizabeth."